They don't make 'em like that any more … oh wait, yes they do. Kurt Russell in the original Escape from New York. Photograph: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis

Hollywood is to have a second crack at bringing the cult John Carpenter film Escape from New York back to the big screen. This time around, the project is being put together by producer Joel Silver as the first film in a proposed Rise of the Planet of the Apes-style reboot series, reports Deadline.

Six years ago, Underworld director Len Wiseman signed on to direct a remake of Escape from New York, with Gerard Butler tipped to take the lead. Jeremy Renner and Tom Hardy were also in the running at times, but production company New Line eventually let its rights lapse. It is not known who will take charge of the reboot, nor which actor could be lined up to headline.

The original 1981 Escape from New York saw Kurt Russell as the eyepatch-sporting war hero and convict Snake Plissken, who is sent into the bearpit of future Manhattan (which has become a giant maximum security prison) to rescue the kidnapped US president. It also featured a cavalcade of cult acting talent, from Lee Van Cleef to Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes and Harry Dean Stanton. A sequel, Escape from LA, followed many years later, in 1996.

A clue to the direction of the new film may lie in the fact that Silver is partnering with France's Studio Canal via his production company Silver Pictures. Canal finances Luc Besson-produced "Eurothriller" films such as 2008's Taken, and also worked with Silver on the similarly-pitched 2011 movie Unknown. Both films starred Liam Neeson.